


Burn My Bridges Down

by MacyAudenStar



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: Alive Tommy, F/M, Fake/Pretend Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-25
Updated: 2014-02-25
Packaged: 2018-01-13 17:17:26
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,863
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1234654
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MacyAudenStar/pseuds/MacyAudenStar
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Felicity has Tommy pretend to be her boyfriend when her ex visits town.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Burn My Bridges Down

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to [Girlwithsixsmiles](http://www.archiveofourown.org/users/Girlwithsixsmiles) for being an amazing beta!

“Tommy,” Felicity hissed, coming up behind him. “I need a favor.”

Tommy smiled, his blue eyes crinkling in the corners. “Sure, what’s up?

“Be my boyfriend for ten minutes,” Felicity said quickly.

Tommy put his hand to his heart. “Only ten minutes? You wound me, Smoak.”

Felicity pursed her lips, tilting her head to the side for a moment. “Please, Tommy. My ex just walked in with his model girlfriend and I just...please do me this favor.”

“You want to use me to make your ex-boyfriend jealous? I’m touched, Felicity.”

“Ex-fiance, actually. So, you’ll do it?”

“Yes, I’ll do it, but more importantly, you were _engaged_?”

Felicity smiled brightly. “You never asked.” She leaned up to kiss him on the cheek and brushed invisible lint off his jacket collar. “You adore me, by the way.”

He smiled softly as he wrapped an arm around her waist, pulling her close. “Of course I do.”

Felicity could feel herself beginning to blush from his close proximity, and immediately realized she’d made the wrong decision. She should have faced Michael like the confident grown woman she’d become. Or she should have chosen a different fake boyfriend. Anyone but the man she’d developed feelings for in the last few months.

She didn’t have time to contemplate her bad decisions, however, because Michael found her in that moment. “Lis! There you are. I thought I saw you in here earlier.”

She looked into Tommy’s eyes for a moment to gather courage, then spun around with a smile on her face. “Michael! Wow. I haven’t seen you in years.”

“Not since you left me at the altar,” Michael said.

Felicity smiled tightly and tried to ignore that she could see Tommy’s eyes widen out of the corner of her eye. “Now, why’d you have to go and bring that up? No need to air my dirty laundry to the new guy, you know.” Tommy squeezed her waist lightly, interrupting the ramble she was about to begin. “Let me introduce you two. Michael, this is my boyfriend Tommy. Tommy, this is Michael.”

Tommy extended his arm to Michael, shaking his hand politely. “Nice to meet you.”

“You, too,” he gestured to the brunette next to him. “This is Caitlin.”

Caitlin smiled, lifting her hand in a tiny wave. “What brings the two of you to Starling?” Felicity asked.

“My sister is getting married this weekend,” Caitlin said. “They’re having a joint bachelor/bachelorette party here tonight.”

Tommy smiled brightly. “You must be with the Heffron party. We’ll have to upgrade you to VIP, make sure it’s a memorable night for you all.”

“I’m sorry?” Michael asked. “What do you mean?”

Felicity laid her hand on Tommy’s chest once again, saying proudly, “He practically runs this place.” The pride showing on her face was genuine. Tommy and Thea worked well together, turning Verdant into a thriving business that DJs wanted to perform at, rather than just being the club known as Oliver Queen’s hobby. Tommy had mentioned, in passing, that he was considering talking Oliver into letting him buy out half the club, so he’d co-own it as well.

Tommy brushed a kiss to her temple. “She’s exaggerating. I’m one of the GMs here, my buddy owns the club. Anyway, I’ll make sure your group has a great night.”

Caitlin smiled widely. “My sister is going to love that. VIP at the hottest club in the state. Thank you so much. You have to let us take you out to dinner tomorrow night, as a thank you.”

Felicity opened her mouth to protest, but Tommy beat her to it, smirking as he looked down at her. “I think that sounds like a great idea. Only if you promise to let Michael tell me some horror stories about my girl here. She’s so quiet about that time in her life.”

“While rambling so much the rest of the time, right?” Michael asked with a grin.

“Exactly.”

Felicity narrowed her eyes at the two men while they made plans to meet at a French restaurant the next night. When Michael and Caitlin walked away, Felicity slapped Tommy’s chest lightly. “I can’t believe you agreed to that.”

Tommy turned to face her, placing his other hand on her waist, and pulling her closer to him. “You’d think you’d have done enough undercover work by now to know that you shouldn’t drop the act too soon.”

She rolled her eyes at him, even as she reached up to link her hands around his neck. “And we needed to keep up the act for another day because…?"

He shrugged and grinned at her. “It sounded fun.”

“You are the worst kind of person, you know that?”

Tommy leaned in close, placing his mouth next to her ear. “How else am I going to learn all your secrets?”

Tommy’s lips brushed the spot under her ear lightly when he pulled away and she shivered at the contact. “You could ask me? But I’ll require wine for the tough stuff.”

“Don’t play that card with me, Felicity Smoak,” he said, leaning back to meet her eyes once again and swaying her to the beat of the music. “You and I both know I’m not Oliver. I ask you questions about your life all the time. I know you visited your mom for her birthday a month ago, and that your cousin just celebrated her first wedding anniversary. Your best friend’s name is Samantha. And that you hate kangaroos because of a rather unfortunate petting zoo incident.”

Felicity rolled her eyes at him. “Fine. You know all kinds of things about me. But you’d never asked me if I’d been engaged.”

“No, but I think that story probably falls under, ‘How was your time at MIT?’ or ‘What happened with your most serious relationship?’” 

She grimaced, remembering that she’d been more than a little evasive with Tommy and Thea that night, while they were commiserating their own relationship failures. Tommy had just learned that Laurel and Oliver were working things out, and Thea had had it with Roy’s everything.

“What’s the deal, Felicity?”

Felicity shook her head and played with the little hairs at the nape of his neck. She refused to meet his eyes, instead staring out at the rest of the club. “There’s no deal. He thought I couldn’t do better than him because what guy wants to date a girl smarter than he is, so I broke it off to show him I could, and that he couldn’t get away with treating me like shit. I haven’t dated anyone seriously since then, because I don’t have time, and here we are.”

“And you think dating a Merlyn is going to show him something different?” He asked wryly.

Felicity snapped her eyes up to his. “Tommy Merlyn, you are better than anyone else I know. And don’t you dare think anything different.”

Tommy smiled slowly, his eyes crinkling in the corners. “Did you just pay me a compliment, Felicity?”

Her lips quirked up, just slightly. “No. I don’t even like you very much. Why would I do that?”

He chuckled and shook his head. “What were you doing back in here, anyway? I thought you’d left for the night.”

“Thea forgot her cell phone in the office, asked if I’d pick it up for her before I headed that way.”

“Well, come on, I’ll go with you to get it, then walk you to your car.”

“You don’t have to.”

“I know, but what kind of boyfriend would I be if I didn’t see you out of my club safely?”

“The fake kind?” Felicity teased.

“We have to keep up appearances, don’t forget. What would Michael think?”

“You are enjoying this far too much,” she said with a sigh.

“Maybe a little.” Tommy took her hand and led her to the office, waiting by the door as she looked for Thea’s phone. “But don’t say you haven’t thought about it.”

“Thought about what?” she asked, distracted.

“About what it would be like to date me.”

“Maybe not date you, so much as I’ve thought about whether or not you’re a good kisser or…” Felicity trailed off, clamping her mouth shut when she’d realized what she’d said. She wondered what the odds were of him just forgetting that she said that.

Tommy wiggled his eyebrows at her. “You could come over here and find out.”

She snorted, finally finding the phone tucked under the keyboard. How had that even happened? “I could, but I already have plans tonight.”

“Right, right. Well, let’s get you out of here then.” He wrapped his arm around her waist again, walking her out the back door of the club. Before they went outside, he took one of the servers aside and asked them to move the party to the VIP area.

“Thank you,” she said as he held the car door open for her.

Before she could make her exit, he leaned down, “I’ll pick you up at 6:30 tomorrow night?” She agreed and he shut her door, allowing her to drive off. She glanced back in her rearview mirror to see him still standing in that spot, hands in his pockets, contemplative look on his face.

* * *

Felicity was just sliding her feet into her favorite heels when she heard the knock at the door. She glanced at the clock in her room, 6:27, and laughed. A billionaire that was on time for something. That was a refreshing change of pace. “Come in!”

She heard the door shut, then heard him call out. “How do you know I’m not some serial killer?”

“Well, I don’t, but if you are, just know that I have a panic button in my room that goes directly to the vigilante.”

“Do you really?” Tommy asked from her bedroom door.

Felicity scoffed. “No. And don’t you dare give Oliver that idea. I will ruin you.” She stood up and brushed out her skirt. “Ok. I’m ready.”

He whistled. “Wow, Felicity. You look great.”

“Thanks. So do you.” She loved it when he wore blue, it always brought out his eyes. She grabbed her clutch and locked up quickly. He placed his hand on the small of her back as they walked down to his car. “You ready for this?”

“Of course I am. I’m the luckiest guy in the world, how could I not be?”

Felicity rolled her eyes, “You do realize that you don’t have to stay in character this whole time, right?”

“Who says I’m in character?” She was silent, choosing instead to check her phone that there weren’t any missed texts from Oliver or Diggle. She should have feigned sick or something to get out of their plans, she realized. She knew she liked Tommy, but asking him to play her fake boyfriend was asking a little too much of herself. Hadn’t she learned anything about unrequited feelings over the last 25 years of her life?

“What are you so nervous about?” Tommy asked her, interrupting her thoughts.

She sighed, putting her cell phone down. “It’s not that I’m nervous. It’s that I never wanted to have to spend any amount of time with Michael again. I let him break me down for too long.”

He frowned, squeezing her knee gently. “Well, you’ll just have to go in there and show him what he missed out on by treating you like shit.”

She shook her head. “You’re right. I don’t know why I’ve let myself be so bothered about this.” He tossed the valet his keys, placing his hand on the small of her back again. She was going to miss all the unnecessary touching when they weren’t “dating” anymore.

Michael and Caitlin were already seated when they got in. They made small talk in between placing wine and food orders, then Michael turned to Tommy and said, “How did the two of you meet?”

Tommy turned and smiled at her as he entwined his fingers with her own on the table. “My friend’s family owns the company that Felicity works for. He reached out and asked her to help us get our network setup at the club. She made us feel like complete idiots, of course,” he said with a chuckle. “But got us all taken care of. I fell slowly, I was in a relationship at the time.” He shook his head, almost regretfully. “I’ve always been drawn to women that are smarter than I am.”

Felicity looked up at him in shock, recognizing the truth in his words, and he shrugged sadly at her, caressing the back of her hand with his thumb. “She’s one of the best things to ever happen to me.” He looked back at Michael and said, “What about you and Caitlin?”

Felicity tuned Michael and Caitlin out, already knowing how they met, having heard about it from the only mutual friend she and Michael still had. Tessa had called Felicity up, in shock that Michael was dating someone that had gone into Fashion Merchandising. “Of all things,” Tessa had said. “Fashion merchandising?”

Felicity had rolled her eyes at Tessa and made an excuse to get off the phone as quickly as possible. But Tessa hadn’t let her go without telling her, “And they met at the mall. Since when does Michael shop at the mall?”

But Caitlin seemed nice, if only a little quiet. She was friendly. And Felicity didn’t think it mattered what she did, as long as she loved it. She just hoped that Michael was treating Caitlin better than he did her.

Tommy squeezed her hand quickly. “I’m sorry?” Felicity said, looking around the table.

“I was just asking what you do, Felicity,” Caitlin said with an amused smile on her face.

“I’m sorry. I spaced out for a moment. I work for Queen Consolidated.”

“She’s the Director of Special Projects at Queen Consolidated,” Tommy interjected. “She’s very good at what she does.”

“It’s a lot of long hours, but I love it,” she added as her phone buzzed. She rolled her eyes, it was just a text from Thea. She turned her cell phone off and tucked it into her clutch.

Tommy kept the conversation flowing for the majority of the evening, managing to keep Caitlin involved, even as he kept trying to get embarrassing stories about their time at MIT out of Michael.

When they walked outside, there was a short line waiting for the valet. Felicity gave Caitlin a quick hug, while Tommy shook hands with Michael before they walked to their car in the parking lot. Felicity leaned against the brick wall, watching Tommy hand the valet the ticket, then walk back over to her, a cocky smile on his face.

“That went well, don’t you think?” he said, leaning his shoulder up against the wall, close enough that she could smell his cologne.

She smiled. “It wasn’t terrible, that’s for sure.”

“I mean, it could have gone better.” He teased. He stretched his arm out so that his hand was on the other side of her head, his face close to hers, close enough that she could see the slight stubble that was beginning to come in along his jawline. Her fingers itched to reach out and touch it, but she balled them up into a fist instead.

“How’s that?”

“Well, I have an idea. But I’ll need you to hear me out,” he said lightly. She looked up at him questioningly, but before she could say anything, he dipped his head down, brushing his lips over her own, before pulling back to look at her in question. She nodded slightly, hoping that was answer enough for him. 

He grinned for a split second before capturing her lips with his, placing one hand on her hip, trying to get as close as possible. Felicity’s free hand ran up his chest, brushing her fingertips over his stubble like she’d longed to do only moments before, whimpering against his mouth as he nipped at her bottom lip.

They heard a throat clearing a few feet away from them and broke apart guiltily. “Your car is here, sir.”

“Thanks,” Tommy said. He handed the boy a few bills as a tip and opened the door for Felicity, getting her inside before getting in the car himself.

Felicity licked her lips and grinned, looking over at him. “As far as ideas go, that was a pretty good one.”

“Glad to hear it. So what would you say to me taking you out on a real date sometime?”

“Did you really mean what you said to Michael at the table? When he asked how we met?”

Tommy grabbed for her hand again, clasping their fingers together. “Every word. I told you last night, I adore you.”

She smiled at him, looking at their clasped hands in her lap. “I think a real date would be excellent.” She paused. “I also think continuing the conversation that we were having back there sounds like a great idea.”

He glanced at her briefly, a heated look that she could feel down to her toes. “Don’t think I won’t pull this car over, Felicity.”

**Author's Note:**

> I'm [macyaudenstarr](http://macyaudenstarr.tumblr.com) on tumblr, if you ever want to stop by and say hi! As always, any and all feedback is appreciated. Thanks for reading!


End file.
